90 VEHICLES IN CHAIN-REACTION MESS

A fast-moving line of late afternoon thunderstorms plowed into Interstate 95 traffic north of Baltimore Saturday, causing 11 separate accidents that sent at least 18 people to hospitals and caused massive traffic disruption in the heavily traveled corridor.

The storm system, which pelted parts of the region with pea-sized hail, prompted almost 90 vehicles -- cars, trucks and at least one bus -- to skid into each other in a series of chain-reaction crashes.

The traffic nightmare began about 4:30 p.m. in the southbound lanes near the White Marsh exit as a brief but intense storm struck northeastern Maryland, said State Highway Administration spokeswoman Kellie Boulware.

The initial crash was followed by at least 10 others, said Maryland State Police spokesman Capt. Greg Shipley. He said that as of about 9 p.m., 86 vehicles were known to have been involved in the crashes.

"We believe that weather was a contributing factor in these crashes," Shipley said. He said that in one of the accidents, a southbound semitrailer truck crossed the median and blocked the northbound lanes.

Traffic backed up for miles on I-95 as all lanes were closed for several hours.

Southbound lanes remained closed late Saturday, while northbound traffic moved slowly on the shoulder and one lane that was reopened, Boulware said.

Curtis Tolliver, a Baltimore area resident who was not injured, estimated that more than an inch of hail fell.

"It was such a heavy, heavy downpour and then with the kind of hail on top of it, you couldn't see anything. There was zero visibility during the storms," he said.

Tolliver said he counted about 90 crashed vehicles as he made his way north. "There were cars piled on top of each other. There were tractor-trailers piled on top of cars," he said.

Richard Ehntsu, 44, a roofing company supervisor from Glenside, Pa., said: "I slowed down and got smacked from behind. We had serious damage to the car. But fortunately nothing happened to us."

Leslie Baker, a medic with the Joppa Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company, was one of three emergency workers who were the first to respond to a report of an accident on southbound I-95 in Baltimore County. She said she found several vehicles scattered across the highway, including a shuttle bus carrying about 30 passengers and two semitrailers -- one that had rear-ended a passenger car and another that had jack-knifed into the northbound lanes.

While she and her fellow workers were helping the victims, she said, "We heard the squealing from a tractor-trailer as it attempted to stop."

The truck "went up into the back half of a small vehicle," she said, setting off a chain reaction that involved another dozen cars.